Point 12 in the category of REPORTED SPEECH for CITATION is defined as: PRESENT SIMPLE of the reporting verb to report information from a written source and a present tense verb in the reported clause. We can start our search with: _nn1 says|tells and then choose nouns related to citation: 1 REPORT SAYS 19880 […]
Point 31 in the category of PRESENT is defined as: Present simple, STORIES AND COMMENTARIES, to summarise events or plot in a story or piece of history, often to give immediate dramatic interest. This usage is not really something that can be easily located in Corpora. However, both example sentences in the EGP contain ‘takes […]
Point 29 in the category of PRESENT is defined as: present simple with a wide range of speech act verbs, including ‘(dis)agree’, ‘accept’, ‘advise.’ A search on iWeb corpus for agree|disagree|accept|advise * * * * *does not really locate speech act theory since there are other uses of these verbs. In particular the most common […]
Point 79 in the category of PAST is defined as: past perfect simple, IMAGINED PAST, the affirmative form after ‘if only’, and the affirmative and negative forms after ‘wish’ to talk about regret. if only * _vhd _vvn 1 IF ONLY I HAD KNOWN 293 2 IF ONLY WE HAD KNOWN 62 3 IF ONLY […]
Point 77 in the category of PAST is defined as: past perfect simple in relative clauses to give background information. who|that|which had _vvn 1 WHO HAD COME 7745 2 WHO HAD TAKEN 5753 3 WHO HAD WORKED 5373 4 WHO HAD DIED 5142 5 WHO HAD MADE 4712 6 WHO HAD LOST 4373 7 WHO […]
Point 75 in the category of PAST is defined as: Past perfect simple to report statements, where the main verb in the reporting clause is in the past simple. _vvd * * had _vvn 1 TOLD HIM WHAT HAD HAPPENED 256 2 SAID THAT HE HAD SEEN 187 3 TOLD THEM WHAT HAD HAPPENED 184 […]
Point 74 in the category of PAST is defined as: leave out the subject before the past perfect simple where it is understood from the previous clause. _c _had _vvn *However the common that clauses do not really locate ellipsis. 1 THAT HAD COME 3547 2 THAT HAD HAPPENED 3283 3 THAT HAD GONE 2900 […]
Point 73 in the category of PAST is defined as: Past simple: ‘I wondered’ and ‘I wanted’ as politeness structures, when making polite requests and thanking. I wondered if * could * 1 I WONDERED IF IT COULD BE 52 2 I WONDERED IF I COULD DO 46 3 I WONDERED IF I COULD MAKE […]
Point 66 in the category of PAST is past perfect simple used for a CHANGE OF SITUATION. The EGP uses HAD + ‘planned’ and ‘wanted’ + ‘but’ in their examples. Since this is a difficult structure to find in corpora due to the length of sentences, we have looked directly in Google news for examples: […]
Point 65 in the category of PAST is past perfect simple QUESTIONS. iWeb corpus was not offering information for this pattern, but COCA did offer something basic. One thing is for sure. This is quite a rare structure. had _p _vvn ? 1 HAD SHE DONE ? 44 2 HAD HE DONE ? 35 3 […]